optifast time for me

so after much laziness and weight gain over the past 15 years my doctor had me go the route of a supervised "diet" to reduce my weight. Its called optifast and I have to "eat" 5 times per day for 12 weeks.
The meals consist of either a milkshake, soup or a snack bar. Total calories are 800 per day.
There is a workout regime that also has to be followed over the 12 weeks that progressively raises the level of your heart rate. Another component is the weekly meetings with a counselor for support and discuss your struggles.
My target is 50 pounds loss over those 12 weeks.
I am on Day four and boy does my tummy rumble as I get used to this new diet but I will trade 12 weeks to improve my long term health.
From what I have read online the hardest part is the first couple of weeks.
I will let you know how it goes.

Where the Heck have I been

Its been to long since I have been able to jot down some thoughts.
I have been working at my new job the past 6 weeks. Its been fun but alot of learning.
There are many good people there and the company is growing like wildfire.
We just announced our IPO so I guess joined at just the right time.
One of the perks there is that we get as much free snack food, fresh fruit, and drinks as we want.
They say new people gain about ten extra ponds after working there six months.
They also feed us lunch one day a week and bagels on two other days.
It is a big change from last job...the blessings in my life just continue.

Back to work

Since my network Security program was coming to an end I have gearing up my job hunt.
I participated in a interview by invitation for a smallish tech company about ten days ago.
It went so well that they asked me do an onsite interview yesterday. That went pretty good and thay called me on Friday telling me they wanted me to come work for them and that my offer letter was in the mail. I will start on Jan. 2 2007
All I have to say is yippeee and thank you God!!

interviewing, school and stuffing

I am coming to the end of my six month school program. It has been a busy time especially with only one three weeks to go in the quarter. My wife and daughter have been so supportive during this time of me not having a job.
Since school is ending soon I decided it was time to really look for a job and I had an interview last week before thanksgiving. The interview lasted three hours with four different people, questions covered all aspects of my career and technical areas. The technical questions were the toughest, one interviewer asked me good written questions that I was able answer. Another interviewer asked some obscure Unix questions and he was not clear with them so I had a tougher time answering his questions. The difference between him and the previous guy is that the first guy had all of his questions on paper whereas the last guy was asking on the fly.
It was a good experience and the guys all seemed nice, I should hear something in the next two weeks.
Thanksgiving was a fun day, I finally got to eat my favorite part of the meal, fresh turkey stuffing. All the food was great, my my brother in law Clayton did a great job. the only hitch was that he put the turkey in late so it seemed we had dinner a couple later than planned.
We all ate too much but still had room for dessert which also great.
the whole family was there including his girlfriend Nell's parents so they got to have fun watching us be wacky.
I got to make fresh cranberry jelly for the turkey, everyone loved it and we promptly ate most of it.
My wife Linda is supposed to make a turkey for us this weekend so I will get more stuffing to stuff myself with just like Winnie the Pooh.

Heroes the show

I have been busy at school. I decided to carry 16 units this quarter and I and find that it is a big load. Next time I will take less classes or classes that are not 5 units each. In my free time I started to watch whats become on of my favorite new shows
of the season Heroes on NBC. I was surprised how each episode has been well done, my only complaint is in the most recent episode they focused on the stripper with the dual personality power and it brought the episode down. I like Ali Larter, but her character is not sympathetic. She has killed about 6 people in the last few episodes so I would not consider her a hero. Unless they plan to make her an evil force that battles the other heroes in the show then I can understand why they need to develop her characterorigins.
They also have a drug addict as a hero who needs his heroin to "foretell" or paint the future he sees on his drug trips. His power is known as precog or precognitive.
All of the other characters are enjoyable. I don't have any problems so far with the cheerleader mostly because my daughter is a cheerleader so we enjoy watching her.
Hiro, is my favorite hero.
Watching this show has been a nice break from my studies.

been busy

I have not posted in about three weeks. I have been really busy, I started the fall term in school. In that time I interviewed and was hired as a consultant with a staffing agency. I decided I did not want to start work until after October but when they hired me they told of a job at a small high tech company that seemed right up my alley and it fits my time table. I will see if it comes to fruition, if not I will just have more time to dedicate to my studies.
The class load at school has been demanding. I have a lot more homework to do and plenty of reading. It is a lot busier at school now with more people and cars.
I got a new laptop so I could do some of my school work when I got to the coffee shop, except now I have not gone to the coffee shop as much as I thought I would be going.
oh well, I love having to play with a new gadget.

Nice week off from school

After turning in my two finals, I have been off from school. We will start the Fall quarter on the 25th. I decided to add a CCNA2(Intro to routing and routers) class to my schedule. It will add five units to my course load but it should be worth it.
I am also planning to study for my Solaris certification test.
Hopefully when all this is done I will be able to have the ammunition needed to land the job "I" want. Of course it is up to the good Lord to direct my paths so I will trust in him.
Later
Alex